I'm so pleased that 'Madam Butterfly (Un Bel Di Vedremo)' was a good discovery for quite a few at the SyncTube session, including yourself - it would top that group for me too. My first exposure to it was on my Now 4 vinyl as a teen and my ears couldn't quite believe what they were hearing! This was from the same Malcolm McLaren of 'Buffalo Gals' and 'Double Dutch'?! What a satisfying swerve. It's a breath-takingly beautiful blend of genres, with the operatic vocals particularly stealing the show.

Alphaville's 'Forever Young' never making the top 40 is such a shocking stat on paper, especially with its revival in the streaming era, but I'm glad the group managed a top 10 result out of 'Big In Japan' - also a quality release. I'd highly recommend the accompanying album! I was once on the hunt for more '80s synth-pop records to sink my teeth into, so looked up recommendations from forums and found the likes of that album and The Human League's Travelogue, both fantastic.

Speaking of acts with a lack of chart presence here... it's shocking to me that The Romantics never touched the U.K. chart, as I'm really familiar with both 'Talking In Your Sleep' and 'What I Like About You'. At least Bucks Fizz gave the former some kind of top 40 stamp here, even if I wouldn't choose it over the original.

Shame I didn't have room for 'Master and Servant' in my weekly SyncTube top 5 votes! A striking release from the group both lyrically and production-wise.

Snap favourite for the next group as it couldn't be anything other than the epic 'Purple Rain' at the top for me too 💜 I first discovered the song when Ruth Lorenzo performed it on the X Factor, unaware of how much I'd adore the whole album as an adult. I'm pretty sure I came across Blondie's 'Call Me' from that series as well, thanks to Diana Vickers, so a formative time for some of my '80s favourites. I've still been trying to work out why 'Purple Rain' re-entered the chart in 2012, as per the discussion on SyncTube and the best evidence I can find for its boost remains a reduction to 59p on iTunes, what a time capsule. Glad the song eventually re-peaked even if under sad circumstances. An evergreen classic from the purple one!

A tragically low showing in the charts for the wonderfully classy 'Smooth Operator' indeed! The first top 20/40 hit with 'smooth' in the title, but should've been top 10. Unsurprisingly Michael Jackson is the one who will rectify this, with Santana and Alien Ant Farm following suit...

'Apollo 9' was produced by Tony Visconti so neat that it should wind up in a section alongside Bowie, a long-time collaborator of his. I never got into his solo career as much as his work with the Ants, but shame his Live Aid appearance was quite the flop as mentioned by John, stalling his chart career until the '90s as you say. I only recently found out that he was part of the line-up of another iconic event, the Motown 25 special featuring that iconic 'Billie Jean' performance, how random! I understand Adam was a bit of a style icon for MJ though.

You once asked me Julian, what my favourite guitar solo was. Well that would be Purple Rain. Epic and only really topped by When Doves Cry.

Smooth Operator is great. As others have mentioned, as shockingly low peak. Especially when you consider how successful Olivia Dean has been recently, doing similar things, but less well.

Pride is one of my favourite early U2 singles, brilliantly anthemic

Human Racing is lovely

Tesla Girls is fun, but I can’t believe it’s not about EM!

Hammer To Fall is certainly dramatic

Why is good but inferior to Smalltown Boy

“Drive” is a fabulous example of how evocative soft rock can be: it’s such a warm and immersive track. However it’s come up against one of my all time favourites in “Together In Electric Dreams”, a song I love even more “Don’t You Want Me”, Oakey’s peak with the Human League.

	Giorgio Moroder With Philip Oakey	Together In Electric Dreams	Only Top 40 creditors for either of these artists in their own right, and it's exquisite and sparkling of synth pop
9	The Cars	Drive	This is actually their last hit though it will be Top 5 again next year: a beautiful, wistful and emotional song
8	Alison Moyet	All Cried Out	One of her best remembered solo songs and it's very powerful, emotionally charged and brilliantly performed
8	The Style Council	Shout To The Top	Their most streamed song on Spotify: it's about the miners' strike and that riff is very memorable and effective
7	The Stranglers	Skin Deep	A lovely song about superficiality: their hits continue to be great even though most aren't big or well known
7	Wham!	Freedom	539th #1: this is a very good, bright and breezy song, though George solo has now shown more artistic depth
7	Paul McCartney	No More Lonely Nights (Ballad)	Continuing a very successful run of singles, this is a rather gorgeous ballad with a Dave Gilmour guitar solo
6	Big Country	East Of Eden	Their 2nd album lead not managing to give them a 4th Top 10, but it has their usual expansive hopeful sound
6	Paul Young	I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down	A cover of a 1970s soul song, but it's well done and with some strong and punchy '80s production added
5	John Waite	Missing You	Very well remembered as a Heart FM staple and it is good for its genre, but everything about it is quite ordinary
5	Meat Loaf	Modern Girl	This is very much in the usual Meat Loaf sound world: it is enjoyable but I don't find it particularly distinctive
4	Dio	Mystery	1st Top 40 after a few misses for this US band: this is fine but I find it indistinguishable from other hard rock
3	The Bluebells	Cath	Their last Top 40 apart from the "Young At Heart" revival: this is rather lightweight with some basic lyrics
2	Culture Club	The War Song	A 7th straight (and last) Top 3 but a rather poor and banal effort from them, plus the melody is quite grating

1984 Group 18:

1511	06/10/1984	Bruce Springsteen	Cover Me	16	44-38-38-42-74-32R(20)-18-{16}-20-34-42-55-72->13
#1512	20/10/1984	Chaka Khan	I Feel For You	1	22-5-2-{1}-1-1-2-6-14-21-25-21-25-50-63-74->16
#1513	20/10/1984	Ultravox	Love's Great Adventure	12	23-13-13-{12}-12-16-30-46-65->9
#1514	20/10/1984	Spandau Ballet	Highly Strung	15	25-{15}-21-30-54->5
#1515	06/10/1984	Julian Lennon	Too Late For Goodbyes	6	71-42-30-12-{6}-6-9-19-34-50-75->11
#1516	13/10/1984	Kim Wilde	The Second Time	29	52-33-{29}-29-37-59->6
#1517	20/10/1984	Lionel Richie	Penny Lover	18	36-22-{18}-18-22-30-58->7
#1518	13/10/1984	Eugene Wilde	Gotta Get You Home Tonight	18	50-39-32-24-22-{18}-23-36-52->9
#1519	13/10/1984	Feargal Sharkey	Listen To Your Father	23	63-40-30-{23}-24-29-42->7
#1520	27/10/1984	Status Quo	The Wanderer	7	23-{7}-7-7-10-18-31-43-53-59-66->11
#1521	13/10/1984	Billy Ocean	Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)	6	68-43-25-12-9-{6}-6-10-17-31-38-43-47-53->14
#1522	03/09/1983	ZZ Top	Gimme All Your Lovin'	10	68-61-72-56R(55)-47-41-34-15-11-{10}-15-21-38-48-60-56-60-67->18
#1523	13/10/1984	Limahl	Never Ending Story	4	69-47-40-20-10-5-{4}-5-10-18-27-33-43-66->14

Electric Dreams is pure joy, always goes down a blast at Human League gigs - I guess it's rated 9 here? Giorgio did have his own top 40 hit though, From Here To Eternity in 1977 not long after I Feel Love exploded. 10/10 No Moroder on the credit though. Drive is one of the most-heartbreaking records ever made, first from the video mental illness point of view, and then from the Live Aid video point of view, gets me every time. Perfection. 10/10.

All Cried Out of one of Alison's best, oodles of vocal power 9/10. Shout To The Top a goodie too, 8/10, and my brother was fully on strike at the time and down living with us with the wife and kids at times in '84. I prefer You're The Best Thing, Long Hot Summer, Speak Like A Child, The Lodgers as they had killer melodies, and this was more about the riff and lyrics.

Skin Deep another Stranglers goodie, 8/10. Freedom all the joy and pathos of a Motown track, 9/10, No More Lonely Nights a more mature Paul plugging his new film, nice enough but I think I preferred his telly excurison with the Frogs. 7/10. East Of Eden I felt Big Country were becoming a bit samey by this stage 6/10. Paul Young's a good single though 7/10.

Missing You sounded better at the time than now, and it's not in the same league as the epic Isn't It Time, when John was lead of The Babys. 6/10. Parts of it refer back melodically a bit to The Babys Everytime I Think Of You. Meat Loaf without Jim Steinman was more of a cartoon character, Modern Girl 5/10. Dio I don't recall at all. Not one bit. Pretty sure I didnt like it. Cath was frothy enough for me 6/10, and The War Song getting a right royal slagging at the time for the lyrics, but I rather liked the simplicity of the statement and intent given we half-expected nuclear war. Cos War is indeed stupid. The tune was decent. It's not the number one I rated it off the back of their massive album though, Colour By Numbers is better and George was dabbling with substances it came to light later 8/10. Pretty much signals the end of their peak era, though George would still have sporadic inspiration over the years.

Great stuff at the top of your ranking.

Together In Electric Dreams is gorgeous synth pop, right up there with any Human League single.

Love Drive’s warm sentiments

All Cried Out might be my favourite Alison Moyer song, a real powerhouse vocal.

I’m a bit surprised Shout To The Top is the most streamed Style Council song, though I do like it a lot and the lyrics are great.

I didn’t really remember Skin Deep but enjoyed it a lot in the playback.

Freedom is a lot of fun.

Not quite as stellar a bunch as some others this year, but some really good stuff all the top. “Ain’t Nobody” is Chaka Khan’s classic but “I Feel For You” is a very interesting and innovative record.

8	Chaka Khan	I Feel For You	540th #1: an extraordinary cover including features such as rapping from Melle Melz and Stevie on harmonica
8	Limahl	Never Ending Story	His last hit and a beautiful track recorded for the film of the same name, with lovely backing vocal interplay
8	Ultravox	Love's Great Adventure	Their last hit for a while and it's an excellent one with their soaring, emotive vocals and warm production
7	Bruce Springsteen	Cover Me	I like how different this is from his previous hits: quite a raw sounding, enjoyable and stomping rock track
7	Kim Wilde	The Second Time	The lead from her new album not setting the charts alight, but it's a very strong track with pulsating synths
6	Julian Lennon	Too Late For Goodbyes	His 1st hit: his voice sounds remarkably like his father's on this and it's a nice song with a slight reggae feel
6	Billy Ocean	Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)	His 1st Top 40 for 7 years and a well remembered and very highly streamed song that I respect but don't love
5	Feargal Sharkey	Listen To Your Father	Debut solo single for the Irish singer: it's quite an enjoyable and bouncy track, though nothing remarkable
5	ZZ Top	Gimme All Your Lovin'	Originally charted last year but now becomes a big hit: it's a decent track but I can't really say it excites me
4	Spandau Ballet	Highly Strung	Their lowest peak since 1981: the track itself isn't bad but nothing special, and some of the lyrics are banal
3	Lionel Richie	Penny Lover	A 5th single that doesn't really leave much impression, and he's very much back to the moribund ballad style
2	Eugene Wilde	Gotta Get You Home Tonight	1st for this US R&B singer: I find this very similar in style to "Sexual Healing", but a far less interesting track
2	Status Quo	The Wanderer	A 1961 song by Dion, and I really can't see what this rendition adds, but it manages to outpeak the original

1984 Group 19:

#1524	03/11/1984	Duran Duran	Wild Boys	2	5-3-{2}-3-9-19-29-32-31-26-23-39-50-70->14
#1525	27/10/1984	The Pointer Sisters	I'm So Excited	11	44-28-16-14-{11}-16-22-39-51-60-61->11
#1526	03/11/1984	Iron Maiden	Aces High	20	32-{20}-25-43-71->5
#1527	27/10/1984	Heaven 17	This Is Mine	23	46-36-28-{23}-29-42-69->7
#1528	03/11/1984	Gary Numan	Berserker	32	38-{32}-37-45-66->5
#1529	27/10/1984	Chicago	Hard Habit To Break	8	60-39-21-11-{8}-8-11-24-29-34-39-44-73->13
#1530	03/11/1984	Jim Diamond	I Should Have Known Better	1	40-13-3-2-{1}-2-6-18-20-19-28-46-57->13
#1531	10/11/1984	Depeche Mode	Blasphemous Rumours/Somebody	16	29-{16}-17-32-54-64->6
#1532	03/11/1984	The Dazz Band	Let It All Blow	12	50-35-28-14-{12}-14-27-30-36-38-38-59->12
#1533	17/11/1984	Nik Kershaw	The Riddle	3	17-5-4-{3}-8-8-12-11-14-32-55->11
#1534	03/11/1984	Eurythmics	Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)	4	62-44-24-7-6-{4}-9-17-17-17-22-47-72->13
#1535	17/11/1984	The Temptations	Treat Her Like A Lady	12	26-{12}-13-18-28-31-41-33-42-66->10
#1536	27/10/1984	Alvin Stardust	I Won't Run Away	7	68-75-51-31-18-11-{7}-10-16-18-22-30-67->13
#1537	10/11/1984	Matt Bianco	Half A Minute	23	50-34-28-{23}-33-45-52-62-62-75->10
#1538	17/11/1984	The Human League	Louise	13	36-26-14-{13}-15-24-28-27-36-61->10
#1539	17/11/1984	Slade	All Join Hands	15	38-20-{15}-20-23-25-27-29-52->9

Not quite as many highlights this time.

I Feel For You is fantastic though, it still feels very futuristic and testament to Prince’s songwriting skills. Absolutely love Stevie’s harmonica too.

Never Ending Story is gorgeous especially the lovely vocals and twinkling synths.

Love’s Great Adventure is one of Ultravox’s great uptempo songs.

Too Late For Goodbyes is really nice, as you say, very reminiscent of his dad

Caribbean Queen is good but not outstanding.

I do have a soft spot for Gimme All Your Lovin’s unapologetic rock though

Love's Great Adventure - epic and operatic trance-like production.

Caribbean Queen probably Billy Ocean's best 80s track!

The Second Time I have liked for a long time - good high energy track.

I Feel For You is good too, it blends hip hop, post disco and soul indeed!

Edited yesterday at 16:451 day by TheSnake

I Feel For You remains fresh and exciting as it was at the time, 9/10. Never Ending Story never seen the film but it's Limahl's best record by a mile 9/10, Love's Great Adventure is great live, so upbeat and the video is fun, Midge stops to catch his breath half-way after doing an Indiana Jones performance 8/10.

Kim's Second Time is also a goodie, sounds great in concert too, 8/10. Cover Me is OK Bruce, 7/10. Too Late For Goodbyes was lovely to see Julian get a hit, Hey Jude and all that 8/10. Caribbean Queen finally became the hit after several different version for different regions - African Queen, European Queen for 2 - which just didnt sound right, syllable-wise. Great to have Billy back again and another gem 9/10.

Listen To Your Father was a decent track, but not quite Undertones class 7/10, for now. ZZ Top broke through thanks to the linked theme videos of cars and girls and guitars and beards and were a bit of rock-riff fun Gimme All Your Lovin' 8/10. Highly Strung reaching a new low for Spandau, really got on my nerves 4/10. Still does.

Penny Lover better than Stuck On You, but not in the same class as All Night Long/Running With The Night as they go for the new-fave-thing of the time: mining albums for endless singles 6/10. Eugene Wilde is one I havent heard in 42 years! Pretty sure I liked it 6/10. The Wanderer is back as Quo go all Showaddywaddy formula covers, but the 1976 Dion reissue of the 60's hit is way better and it seemed a bit pointless as it had already been revived. 4/10.

'Together In Electric Dreams' is my very own 'Angels' aka a record I always forget didn't peak at #1, as it feels so massive and timeless! Going to finally drum this fact into my head now. Good to know it wasn't blocked by anything bad, as I like Wham!'s 'Freedom' and Paul McCartney's 'No More Lonely Nights', but this blows them out of the water and would be my favourite of this section too. Love the dreamy synth production, Oakey's ever commanding vocal and the long distance lyrics. 'Drive' is a wonderful runner-up too, its slow burn sound really appeals to me and the lyrics are all the more evocative with the famous Live Aid footage.

I'd agree with the Spotify streams that 'Shout to the Top' feels like The Style Council's signature song, probably because the riff has been used in media. I really like it myself although 'Long Hot Summer' just about pips it as my favourite from them.

'I Feel For You' is great (and what a line-up with the Prince origins, Chaka, Melle Mel and Stevie) although I think 'Never Ending Story' just beats it as my favourite here - what a beautiful, fantastical and unexpected turn in Limahl's discography. I agree the backing vocals really add to it and Moroder is on fire once again with the production.

The Cars Drive is a good atmospheric ballad, like a successor to Paul Young's 'Wherever I Lay My Hat' especially the synth bit in the latter song reminds me of it.